My ideal and realistic crowd avg's for 2013/14

Since there has been a bit of talk about crowds lately, and also about how the NBL could improve itself, I thought I would give my thoughts on what clubs could realistically achieve next year with their attendances, going by current trends - and with a little bit of marketing nous and some ballsy decisions to push them along...

1. Perth Wildcats - 11,000 - No reason why they cant keep this momentum going over to next season.

2. NZ Breakers - 7,000 and play all their games at Vector. The demand is there!

3. Sydney Kings - 6,500 - As long as they keep improving on the court and avoid the odd thrashing in front of their bigger crowds, then 6,500 is achievable.

4. Adelaide 36ers - 5,000 - With a new coach hopefully coming in and a return to the playoffs, a possible new ownership structure and a more ideal schedule, the Sixers should reach this avg if these factors go their way.

5. Melbourne Tigers - 5,000 and all games played at Hisense Arena. The demand is there!

6. Cairns Taipans - 4,500 as long as they win at home!

7. Wollongong Hawks - 4,000 - I believe they should be doing much better than what they are, but 4,000 would be a nice average for this club, regardless of on court results.

8. Townsville Crocs - 3,800 - 4,200. There's room to improve at the Crocs, but I think they need the most work done off the court to get there. Hopefully Pat Reidy will re-energise this franchise.

Good point. I was actually re-thinking the Melbourne Tigers. I don't think there is any reason why they cant play all their games at Hisense Arena. During the tennis, make the Tigers endure a 2 or 3 week road trip, like they used to when they played there full time.

As for next year's 'ideal' crowd averages, this season will end up around 5200-5300, with the non-Perth teams averaging around 4500.

Ideally Id like to see Adelaide get back on track and have the 36ers and Tigers average over 5000 next year and the Kings and Breakers average over 5500. Then if the three regionals manage over 4000 I think the league will continue its steady climb to respectability.

it would be a good idea for Melbourne to play against the 'bigger' teams at hisense arena- just as i think New Zealand should play majority games at vector.. the accommodation for bigger crowds would hopefully draw more attention to these games and would therefore allow the nbl to grow.

hopefully the competition is tighter next year too- i assume that closer games would be great for fans and would draw in bigger crowds. this would enable the nbl to expand and develop across the nation!

Don't get me wrong, I would love to see it as I think it is a much better venue than the cage but an average crowd of 5,000 at Hisense will send the Tigers broke as costs there are quite high.

The reason why the Tigers played the Hisense home games in groups (5 at the start of the season and 2 at the end) is to minimise costs. Hisense was available for the 5 week period and there were no set-up and pack-down costs, everything stayed in place for the full 5 weeks.